Troll's 2010 AT Journal

27 July 2010, Delaware Water Gap
When I got to the road crossing at Fox Gap today I met Hopper and there was a van like an old milk truck parked there with some writing on it and the number 13 written on it in big letters. There was no one visible in the front seats. While standing there for a bit I heard a noise from within the van. I felt a little uneasy after hearing that. I let Hopper drive off first and then I left. While at Fox Gap there were two large rocks on the side of the road near the trail entrance with things epoxied to them. They looked like shrines for someone. I don’t know if these two people died here or what the story is behind them.

While hiking towards Minsi Mountain I was walking on an old road and day dreaming. After a little while I realized I had not seen any white blazes for a while. I started paying more attention and looking. I went another hundred yards and still did not see any blazes. I decided I better turn around until I see a white blaze again in case I missed a side trail. I walked about one half mile back until I found a blaze. Then I looked real good and did not see any side trails leading off the road. I turned back around and walk back down the road again paying more attention this time. When I got to the place where I turned around, I walked about 20 more feet and sure enough there was a white blaze on a tree. I had just walked about one mile that I did not need to walk. I was not to mad at this because it was a nice day today and it was better to have done that then to walk three miles on a road then to find out that I was not on the trail. I know a few people that at the beginning of their hike had walked almost three miles on a trail to find out it was not part of the AT.

There were a few lookouts walking down into Delaware Water Gap but nothing really spectacular. Donna a friend of mine that I was stationed in the military will in Guam was going to meet me today at DWG and take Hopper and me over to her house for dinner and horseback riding. Donna met us walking up the trail from the parking lot. She was going to take us to a shortcut to get back to her truck and I was following her until Hopper yelled at me and said I was not on the AT and I was cheating. I got back on the AT and walked it to the parking lot. Heaven forbid if I skipped part of the AT. We swung by the church hostel to see if there was anyone I knew and to see is Bismarck and Bluesky had logged in there. Neither one had logged in there. There were two hikers there and I only knew August Rush.

We loaded up and headed for Donnas’ house. We stopped for a drink and to get a deli sandwich along the way. When we got there I met Donnas’ husband Scott and we talked for a bit but Donna wanted to get the horses loaded in the trailer and get moving before it got dark. Hopper did not go riding with use because she told me she did not like horses. The ride was nice it was along and old railroad bed that they had turned into a horse, bike and walking path, it is now a park. We road for about one hour and turned around. I had not ridden a horse since I was stationed in Tennessee back in 1979. That was 31 years ago. Donnas’ horses were well trained. I had some trouble trying to get my horse to stay a little further behind Donna’s horse but I had not ridden in 31 years. The horse was very well behaved, all I had to really do was hold on and the horse knew what to do.

When we got back to Donnas’ house, I called Hopper on the phone to have her come back, she had left while we went for the ride. Donna cooked some BBQ chicken and corn on the cob. I ate my fill. We looked though her photo albums of Guam and talked about people we knew and other things about Guam.

Tomorrow I will take a zero day and hook up with my step brother Ross for the evening. I have not seen him in over 20 years. I probably will not even recognize him when I see him.